The Wooden Puppet and the Hidden Piece
I decided to play a little prank on Siwoo, who was watching me from outside the arena. “Yahp!”
The moment I let out a small shout to catch his attention…
Flashbang! Eye-searing blast!
A ridiculous amount of light exploded from my raised index finger. For a split second, the entire sparring arena looked like a grayscale void. Since I had resistance to the ability I’d created, I was fine. But what about Siwoo…?
I stifled a smirk, and I could’ve sworn I heard a scream of “My eyes!” from outside. What a drama queen. It wasn’t even bright enough to actually blind someone watching through a monitor.
Once I was sure I’d stunned him with just the right amount, I quickly shut off the glowing light and gathered mana into my right arm. The flashbang had been partly to mess with Siwoo for trash-talking me, but that was secondary. My real goal was to avoid revealing my full power before the test even began.
I looked up at the wooden puppet. Should I call it a three-headed, six-armed monstrosity? Or maybe three-headed, one-hundred-and-eight-armed in this case? Either way, the thing had an insane number of arms.
“Damn, it really does look strong at first glance.”
Its three faces could see every blind spot a human possessed, and its five-meter-tall body granted it defensive power far beyond anything human. And those one hundred and eight arms? There was no way it couldn’t wield all one hundred and eight weapons freely. Fighting it would probably feel like taking on one hundred and eight people at once.
“But that’s all it’s got?”
I let out a small laugh. It was the kind of sneer you gave when looking at something far beneath you. One hundred and eight weapons? Vision with no blind spots? A five-meter frame? Like I gave a damn.
I pressed my mana-charged hand against the flimsy wooden puppet. Its eyes were still completely sealed from the flashbang, so getting close wasn’t difficult. And what came next was even easier.
“Yahp!”
I released the mana stored in my right arm. It was a mana discharge that even Dana couldn’t withstand. There was no way a mere wooden puppet could endure it.
Just as I thought, the moment the puppet took the hit, it shattered with a dry crunch like a bundle of straw. Its one hundred and eight arms turned into over a thousand fragments, and its three heads dropped to the floor with a thud, as if crying out that its body was too narrow. That took two seconds.
I shoved my hand into the shattered puppet’s chest and pulled out the single seed hidden inside. That took three seconds total.
Siwoo would be opening his eyes about now, so I waved my hand in front of the monitor, wiggling my fingers so he could see it clearly.
Plea — Stage 30 Cleared
The clear notification rang out. That took five seconds total.
Humming a cheerful tune, I walked out of the sparring arena.
*
“My eyes! Aaaagh!”
I’d been focusing on the screen when I heard the “Yahp!” shout. Then a burst of light exploded out of the monitor like a flashbang grenade. The sudden glare made me cover my eyes and flail around in my chair. A second later came another weak shout, followed by the sound of something crumbling apart.
“What the…?”
When I opened my eyes, an unbelievable sight greeted me.
“What the hell…?”
The wooden puppet had been completely destroyed.
It was impossible to believe. Ever since he was young, Siwoo had trusted his instincts. If he got a bad feeling while walking down the street and changed direction, an accident usually happened on the original path. Even during tests, if he avoided the answer that gave him a bad vibe and picked another, he usually got it right. That was why he couldn’t help but doubt his own eyes now.
The puppet lying in pieces on the monitor gave him the same spine-chilling feeling he’d gotten when he once made eye contact with an A-rank demon. That monster had been said to possess power on par with a high-ranking A-class hero. And yet that very puppet had been smashed to bits.
She’d only been inside for ten seconds, right? When he looked at the monitor, he saw Plea waving at the camera with a cheeky little hand gesture, and in the top right corner was the timer.
‘Five seconds?’
Judging by the fact that she was waving at the camera, it probably hadn’t even taken a full five seconds in reality. The moment Siwoo swallowed hard, the same notification he’d heard when he himself had cleared the puppet rang out.
Plea — Stage 30 Cleared.
She gave a mysterious, satisfied little smile at the sound of the notification, then walked out of the arena looking just as casual as ever.
“So? Did you see that?”
“See what… exactly?”
“Drop the honorifics. We’re friends, aren’t we?”
Right. What this girl wanted from him was for him to act like they were friends. If he didn’t want to get beaten up, he’d better play along.
“Haha, yeah, I guess we are. Honestly I didn’t see it that well, but after watching that scene, the polite speech just came out on its own.”
“I figured as much.”
When he spoke to her in a relaxed, friendly tone, Plea puffed out her chest with a satisfied, proud expression.
“Well, it’s only natural you couldn’t see it at your current level.”
—Ouch.
A tiny scratch appeared on Siwoo’s heart. In cruder terms, it had been scraped raw. He’d struggled like a dog just to clear Stage 3, yet she was showing off that she’d smashed through Stage 30 without breaking a sweat?
Siwoo’s eyes narrowed unconsciously, but Plea didn’t seem to notice. She approached him with her usual bright smile.
“So you’ve gotta get stronger.”
Then she shoved something from her hand straight into his mouth.
“Kgh… ugh!”
What the hell! Siwoo tried to cough it out, but Plea was grinning brightly while covering his mouth with her hand. She clearly wasn’t going to let go until he swallowed. Realizing he had no choice, Siwoo gulped it down.
“Good boy. It was pretty big, so it must’ve been hard to swallow. Want some water?”
“Water my ass…! Tell me what the hell you just made me eat first!”
When he shouted in anger, Plea tilted her head and rested her chin on her hand, pretending to think.
Was she coming up with an excuse? Or just trying to brush it off? Either way, it didn’t seem like he’d ever be able to get close to her. Her usual behavior could be written off as mischievous friend antics and tolerated, but Plea only called him a friend with her mouth. She didn’t actually see him as one—certainly not as an equal. If she had, she wouldn’t have shoved some unidentified object down his throat without warning.
As he ground his teeth, Plea finally spoke from behind her tightly closed lips.
“It’s still… hard to explain properly right now, but I did it to make you stronger. I know it was a bit harsh, so don’t hate me too much. Honestly, I figured you wouldn’t eat it if I told you.”
“Of course I wouldn’t! Who the hell would happily swallow some random rock from a stranger?”
“Rock…”
For some reason, Plea seemed oddly stung by the word “rock”… but that wasn’t his problem.
“Anyway, is that all you needed? Then I’m leaving.”
“Wait!”
Just as I was about to leave the arena, Plea called out and stopped me.
“We’re still friends, right?”
Looking at Plea’s bright smile, Siwoo answered in a low voice.
“Yeah.”
He’d originally planned to coldly reject the friend talk, but the image of her destroying that wooden puppet flashed through his mind. No matter how important pride was, he didn’t want to get beaten up. Siwoo rationalized it to himself as he left the arena.
*
‘Ma mubara! Die!’
I’d originally planned to say that line while feeding him the gem… but throwing out a joke only I would understand felt like it would kill the mood, so I just fed it to him silently.
“Ah, what a shame…”
I’d given him something that valuable. Couldn’t he at least have let me drop that one-liner? The thought crossed my mind, but I shook my head and brushed it off. It was in the past. Regretting it wouldn’t change anything.
“Anyway, that should open up Siwoo’s growth route. Now all I have to do is wait…”
I pulled a canned drink from the vending machine in the corner of the arena and sipped it while reviewing my future plans.
‘I fed Siwoo the hidden piece. Nothing major will happen until the entrance exam or the second semester… so I’ll have to start moving properly once second year begins.’
That was when they would start facing demons in earnest. And by the time second year rolled around, Siwoo—who had eaten the hidden piece—would have become an absolute monster. The hidden piece could turn even the weakest student into something comparable to an A-rank hunter in just half a year. So after three years, I was genuinely excited to see how strong he would become.
Even if I didn’t know the exact details, he’d probably grow strong enough to beat the final boss like a dog. If Siwoo grew properly, my own life would bloom along with his!
…As I imagined my shining future, the image of Siwoo coughing and choking on the gem I’d given him suddenly came to mind, and a faint sense of guilt rose up. I’d been a bit mean earlier too. In my own way, I’d been nice to him… he probably hadn’t been too hurt, right?
I scratched the back of my head. But what was done was done. There was no point dwelling on it. Instead, it was better to think about something more constructive.
“For example… the freshman tournament happening in a week…”
The tournament ranking itself didn’t matter for the future, but the thought of showing off the first personal weapon I’d pestered the director into giving me put me in a good mood.
“Hehe…”
For some reason, the leather case slung over my back felt especially nice today.